The _Faoilleach_ introduces a series of names, peculiarly Celtic, and (so far as the writer is aware), having no equivalents in any other language. The divisions of time denoted by them extend to the beginning of summer, each name, in accordance with the genius of the Gaelic language, as shown in names of places, nicknames, etc., is descriptive. Almanacs have long superseded the ancient notations, and it is not now an easy matter to arrange them in their proper order, or to reconcile the accounts retained by tradition with Almanac notation. The length of time ascribed to each seems to have varied in different districts. _Feadag_, THE WHISTLE, succeeds immediately to the Wolf-month (_Faoilleach_), though some place it before _Cailleach_, and about St. Patrick’s day. In M’Leod and Dewar’s Dictionary it is said to be the third week in February, which reckoned by O.S. is from 1st to 8th March, N.S. It is thus made to succeed the _Faoilleach_, and the same seems the opinion of Hugh M’Lachlan, of Aberdeen, a most learned and accomplished man. In a poem on spring, he says: “Season in which comes the flaying Wolf-month, Cold hail-stones, a storm of bullets, _Feadag_, _Sguabag_, the _Gearran’s_ gloom And shrivelling _Cailleach_, sharp bristled.” It extends to three days, and its boisterous character is shewn in the rhyme: “Feadag, Feadag, mother of the cold Faoilleach, It kills sheep and lambs, It kills the big kine one by one, And horses at the same time.”[59] _Gobag_, THE SHARP-BILLED ONE, lasts for a week, others say three, four, and nine days. _Sguabag_, THE SWEEPER, seems the same as the three days called “The Eddy winds of the Storm Month” (_Ioma-sguaba na Faoilleach_). The appearance of spring is now to be seen, but the bad weather is not yet past. The worst weather comes back occasionally, and there are fewer gusts of wind, uncertain in their coming and duration, that well deserve the name of “Eddy winds from February.” _Gearran_, A GELDING, OR PERHAPS _Gearan_, COMPLAINT. It is quite possible the latter may have been the original name, as there is always associated with it a period called _Caoile_, Leanness. It extends over a month, and in Skye is made to succeed to the _Faoilleach_. There was a rule known to old men, that “the first Tuesday of March (O.S.) is the last Tuesday of Gearran” (_a chiad Di-mairt de’n mhàrt an Di-mairt mu dheire de ’n Ghearran_). In Tiree, from which the lofty hills of Rum form a conspicuous sight, and to the green appearance of which in frosty weather, their snow-covered summits form a striking contrast, it is said, that at the season “the big mare of Rum turns three times to her colt,” _i.e._ from cold and hunger. The expression refers to times when a little hardy breed of horses was found in the Western Islands, like Shetland ponies, and left to shift for themselves during winter. It was also said: